Hello I am a thirty something college student who must present a solution to a word problem in class monday. Please help with each step of the solution. Find the length of the shortest ladder that will reach from the ground, over a wall 8ft high, to the side of a building 1 ft behind the wall. That is minimize the legnth L=L1 plus L2

October 4th 2009, 02:08 PM

galactus

There are various ways to tackle this. I will present a method using trig.

Then, (look at the two triangles made by the ladder, wall, and ground).

if

which gives the absolute minimum for L because

If

Hence,

October 4th 2009, 08:21 PM

eduk8tedidiot

thanks

is there a way to solve it using derivatives

October 4th 2009, 11:02 PM

mr fantastic

Quote:

Originally Posted by galactus

There are various ways to tackle this. I will present a method using trig.

Then, (look at the two triangles made by the ladder, wall, and ground).